


Reasons- Part 1

by CyberWolf_1013



Series: We Must Be Warriors [3]
Category: She-Ra and the Princesses of Power (2018)
Genre: Activism, Alternate Universe - Modern: No Powers, Gen, Inspired by Real Events, Major Character Injury, Minor Bow/Glimmer (She-Ra), POV Bow (She-Ra), People need help, Police, Police Brutality, Public Humiliation, This World Is Crazy, Tragedy, When Can We Stop Killing Each Other, trigger warning
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-01
Updated: 2020-09-01
Packaged: 2021-03-07 03:01:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 917
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26229862
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CyberWolf_1013/pseuds/CyberWolf_1013
Summary: Bow looked down the street. He could see the lit sign of Mysticor 100 yards away and some half-fear-crazed part of his brain yelled 'Run!' He would be safe there. His friends were there. The doors of the police car opened and Bow saw two officers slowly get out from the edge of his vision.OR...We're smack in the middle of 2020 and Bow has an encounter on the streets with the city cops. Things escalate.These things are happening and we can't turn our backs to them.Trigger Warning for violence and injustice.
Series: We Must Be Warriors [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1877209
Kudos: 3





	Reasons- Part 1

**Author's Note:**

> When writing this series I try to avoid placing characters in positions of real life headline news if at all possible. While my story is focused on them, the actions around them shouldn't be. Adora and crew are, in fact, fictional characters. The victims of police beatings and, let's call it what it is, 'Blue Line' murders are very real. The violence faced by activists and protestors is very real. I feel that to make fake people the cause of real action is to diminish those that have suffered for real.
> 
> I never want to do that.
> 
> However, I do realize some stories have to be told from a perspective of frontline news. 
> 
> I understand the sensitivity surrounding this but writers can't shy away from hard topics when sharing the truth makes people uncomfortable. It's my hope that by addressing some of these issues in the familiarity of known characters, and a step out of reality, readers can be freer to connect in ways they might not otherwise. It's my prayer that I can do it some semblance of justice.

-Bow's POV-

The evening was warm as Bow walked down the sidewalk on his way to watch one of his best friend's gigs at Mysticor Bar & Grill in their neighborhood. The bars and restaurants had just been able to open again, with restriction, of course. Catra was really excited about it. The band hadn't been able to get on stage or be paid for months. Bow looked at his watch with a frown, realizing how late he was running. He was supposed to have met Glimmer and the others 10 minuets ago. The young man started to pick up his pace a block from his destination.

A bleep of siren and flashing lights sounded behind him and Bow froze on the sidewalk. It was almost an involuntary halt that his brain jumped into. 'Am I being stopped? Why? They cant be watching me, I just came from my apartment. I didn't even stop to say hi to Razz and Lookie when I passed her shop.' A shiver leaped down his spine as a police car pulled up beside him.

"Breathe. Breathe." He muttered to himself, every muscle tense under his shirt and jeans.

Bow looked down the street. He could see the lit sign of Mysticor 100 yards away and some half-fear-crazed part of his brain yelled 'Run!' He would be safe there. His friends were there. The doors of the police car opened and Bow saw two officers slowly get out from the edge of his vision. 'I cant run. I have to be calm. I have to obey. I haven't done anything wrong. There's other people on the street. Nothing will happen if people are around to see it.' He kept repeating the empty reassurances in his head like a protective mantra.

One of the cops, a middle aged man and probably the senior partner of the two, grabbed Bow's shoulder roughly and pushed him back against the wall of a used book store. He grunted as his shoulders hit the bricks.

"Where you headin' tonight?" The officer demanded to know. "Haven't been hangin' around the 4th Street café, have you?"

"4th Street? No. That's like six blocks away." Bow stammered nervously. He had raised his hands the moment he hit the wall and hadn't lowered them since. "I'm heading to the Mysticor Grill for dinner with friends. That's it." He wanted to point out the restaurant right down the road but feared any sudden hand move would seem hostile.

"So, you know the location I'm talking about?" The lead cop smirked to his younger partner. "Call this in, Stevenson. We've stopped a suspect that matches the description of the armed thief. We'll have to do a search for the gun, if he hasn't disposed of it."

Bow was forced to turn and face the wall, hands placed above his head, as the cop began to pat him down. The young man had never been so humiliated in his 20 years of life. Not even when his dads insisted he try out for the choir and his voice broke in front of everyone in the auditorium. That had been embarrassing for the rest of the year but now... feeling the officer search him for something he didn't have, to be stopped for a reason he had no idea of, to be a suspect because of his skin color... the humiliation seeped into his bones.

As the cop felt down his pant's leg Bow's phone rang in his jeans, and Glimmer's favorite song played as the ringtone, so he immediately knew who it was. Out of natural habit Bow reached for his back pocket to answer Glimmer's call. He should've known better. His hand was caught and smashed back against the wall with crushing force. "Gah!" Bow let out a pained yell while the cop reached into his pocket to pull out his ringing phone.

Glimmer's name appeared on the lit screen and Bow prayed with everything in him that the cop didn't answer it. He didn't, just sneered behind Bow's back. "Glimmer? Hahaha-" He chuckled mockingly. "That sounds like a stripper name. You into that, boy? You like those services paid by the hour?"

The humiliation suffered to that point paled in comparison to the red coil of rage that Bow felt fill his blood. He could mentally feel himself scrabbling to hold his anger. 'Be calm. It doesn't mean anything. He's trying to make you angry. Don't respond. Be calm.' And it worked... until the man spoke next.

"Maybe I could give her a call."

That already raging protective instinct in him reared up and blew away every self preservation brain cell in his head. "Stay away from her!" Bow threw the hand off his wrist and whirled, grabbing for his phone, but in the flash of a second there was a noise like a crack that split the air. A blossoming of pain in his gut. Then a thick arm was around his throat as his legs were kicked from under him. In that sobering moment of his knees hitting the concrete Bow knew he'd F'd up. "Sorry. Sorry, didn't mean to." He gasped, grabbing at the uniform sleeve of the officer who was pinning him to the ground, and his shirt grew damp against his stomach. "My friends are waiting for me..."

Somewhere above him Bow heard one of the men call into their mic. "Suspect down. GSW to the abdomen. Restraint necessary for resisting arrest and violence against a police officer."


End file.
